NSW Premier Reading Challenge
The NSW Premier Reading Challenge is an initiative by the department of education to promote literacy and reading. It is not a competition but rather a challenge.
I gather it happens every year but this is the first year we have been aware of it.
You can find out more from the NSW PRC Website but I’m going to explain it to you as best I can here.
NSW Premier Reading Challenge
What’s the point?
It’s not a competition! It’s aim is to encourage reading within the home. There are no prizes but each child that gets through the challenge is given a certificate.
What do you have to do
1. Work out how many books you need
You go online and should probably read the rules first to work out:
- How many books you need on your booklist
- Whether your child has to read the books themselves.
For our son who is in kindergarten we need to read 30 books. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to read them himself because that would take longer than a year and we would all lose our patience pretty quickly.
2. Check the book lists and select your books
Don’t add them to your Student Reading Record yet. Only do that once you’ve read the book. If you need to record your list of what you are reading print out the Personal Reading Log.
Next you need to find the list, you can work through it alphabetically by title or by author. I went through it by title because I wasn’t expecting to know many of the authors. I was wrong, lots of the authors are well known as are the books.
Lots of the books were books we own or have taken out from the library previously.
Our booklist includes The Gruffalo, Cat in the Hat, Hairy McLairy.
In a series on the PRC booklist, you can read two in the series.
3. Read the book and add it to your Reading Record.
Once you have read your book you add it to your Student Reading Record. When you have recorded 30 books on your Student Reading Record you are finished.
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Book 1 of the NSW Premier Reading Challenge
I intended to follow the list alphabetically and then got distracted and forgot what I was doing so we landed up reading Animal Babies in Seas first.
We haven’t read this book in years because I thought it too childish for the kids but as Mr M is learning sight words he could actually read groups of words which was so exciting for him and us.
The words are nice and bold so they are easy to read. There isn’t really a plot which is great when the kids are trying to find words because they get completely engrossed in that and won’t remember a story.
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Our other books
So far we have also read: Thelma the Unicorn, Guess How Much I Love You and The Cat in the Hat.
